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Saturday, October 15, 2011

I did a great trail run the other day on the Waihee Ridge trail. I'm currently living on the North Shore of Maui and Waihee Ridge is about an hour away over in the West Maui mountains. I was pleasantly surprised to find some decent trail running here in the islands and this one is one of the best trails I've come across.
Running in the West Maui mountains often means coping with clouds, rain and cooler temperatures. At the car in the sun at 1500 feet elevation, the temperature was about 75°. I climbed up into the clouds and gained 2000+ feet and the temperature dropped rapidly and it was about 60° by the time I reached the top.

The trail passes through thick forest of kukui, guava, ohi'a and ferns.

Amazing views of some valleys and waterfalls of West Maui a couple thousand feet below.

The sun rising over Haleakala.

The trail winds along a 20 foot wide ridge and drops off steeply on each side.

Some of the terrain looked positively Alaskan. This damp section was foggy, had evergreen trees and standing water on the trail. It was like something out of Southeast Alaska.

The top of the trail was a dead end with steep drop-offs on all sides. Thick fog prevented me from seeing how steep it really was but I've been up some of the valleys before and seen that much of the terrain is close to vertical. Great run up in the mountains with surfing just a few miles away.